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I'm looking to purchase a new carbon framed bike and torn between the matte black and clear finish coat. With proper care, does the matte finish stand up well over time and as easy to touch up chips and scratches? Matte finish is suppose to be lighter weight and that appeals to my WW side but clear coat finishes have been easy from my experience. Please advise.

I have a BoB Dogma 2. What a pain in the arse. I personally prefer gloss because I can get automotive clearcoat and also buff scratches out of a gloss finish. Look of the matte may be cooler, but it shows everything.

I have a Cannondale Supersix and concur that the matte finish is a pain, whereas my Parlee with the gloss ends up being the wet weather bike due to the ease of cleaning it..The matte is lighter and is very 'now'..

I have a custom painted parlee tt with a semi matte finish that seems to be the best compromise if you really want the matte look- its reasonably easy to clean and durable enough. Based on experience of stock matte clearcoat i would go for gloss i think!

I had an anodized black mtb. After 14 years, it still looked good, which lead me to believe that matte finishes held up better.

But, I recently (within the past month) got a 2013 Argon 18 Gallium Pro,which is a semi matte black frame. I can already tell that it is going to be a PIA to keep clean. Smudges are almost as noticeable as they are on my white bike.

BTW: this topic is in regards to a Parlee Z5sl. The stock matte finish paint scheme is not to my liking due to the general comments mentioned. Researching if, if this frame can be clear coated over carbon versus a black paint job over carbon. The Z4's main tubes are clear coated and it looks great with the carbon weave showing in the light.

CharlesM wrote:When this is really down to finish quality rather than gloss level.

Hi

Im not so sure - I've had a number of gloss finish bikes from high to mediocre quality in terms of finish and durability, but they've all been easier to clean than the matte coat on my tarmac which is of high quality in terms of a flawless finish and durability in terms of no noticable markings after 18 months.

I could clean a gloss frame with wet wipes and furniture/motor polish if I had to, and it would look great, whereas dirt and grease seems to stick much more to the matte finish and require greater effort to get it back to spotless

jon

Edit: Just noted that the OP was talking specifically about chips and scratches, rather than cleaning, and to that I agree with Charles M its about the quality of the finish!

My two pennies is that the big difference is that the matte finish just looks dirtier faster. In terms of ease of cleaning, my z5sl is a breeze and I mostly do it with wipes. The wee bit of a bummer is that I'm doing it all this time! Every ride and if there are a few days of sitting in the studio next to the window. Damn, my white SUSI looked cleaner after a typical ride than the parlee.

But again, it's no more difficult to clean than any other - you just notice the dirt and dust more.

Matti and cookie you're both correct, but its still about the quality rather than the actual gloss.

If the finish isn't applied right and creates too rough a surface and or if the wrong product is applied, both can last well, but will pick up and hold dirt more than even a poorly applied gloss... The same goes for fixing a good matte finish versus a bad one. Getting the sheen to match an incorrectly applied matte is hard, but matching a correctly applied one isn't...

Maybe the better way to put this is that matte finishes are harder to execute well, versus harder to keep clean or protected or less durable...